The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for automatically generating user account policies based on configuration management database information.
User account creation and management are important requirements in most large organization information technology environments. User account management solutions are typically configured through user account policies which include the definition of the requirements for requesting and maintaining an account on computer systems or networks, requirements for user information and passwords, and further define the entitlements of the account.
These user accounts and user account policies, in today's computing environments, are still manually created by a system administrator. Thus, when setting up user accounts to access composite applications or services, i.e. applications or services that are comprised of a heterogeneous collection of applications or services on one or more data processing devices, system administrators are faced with a challenge of understanding all their infrastructure components, e.g., server, storage, network applications, and the like, and their operational dependencies. This further requires the system administrator to have a deep knowledge of user account management tools and how to configure these to enable cost efficient and valuable user account configurations.